Studying Pennsylvania German Bookbindings as Cultural Artifacts

​While the main focus of my research has always been Pennsylvania German illuminated devotional manuscripts, a new essay I co-authored with Consuela Metzger (UCLA Library) and Erin Hammeke (Duke University Libraries) studies bookbindings on Anabaptist religious texts for their material and cultural significance.  Titled “The Faith that Binds: Swiss Anabaptist Devotional Bookbindings in Early America,” the essay combines the close study of book structures with reflections on the religious precepts and practices that guided these books’ use.  The essay is now available in volume 6 of Suave Mechanicals: Essays on the History of Bookbinding, published by The Legacy Press of Ann Arbor, Michigan.  To learn more, click here: http://www.thelegacypress.com/suave-mechanicals-vol-6.html.